Unemployed Individuals to Get $400 Weekly; Trump Administration Plans to Cover All Costs

By Neil P. First Posted: Aug 09, 2020 10:50 PM EDT

One of the executive orders President Donald Trump signed on Saturday was the enhanced unemployment weekly claim. The rule requires the state to counterpart 25 percent of the cost, but the president said the federal government could cover everything.

Photo: reutersconnect
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S.

Trump signed four executive orders on Saturday to help millions of Americans heavily affected by the global pandemic. The orders include enhanced unemployment claims, delaying payroll taxes, house eviction protection, and freezing student loans.

The executive order on enhanced unemployment claims will allow qualified unemployed Americans to receive a claim worth $400. However, the federal government will require the state to cover 25 percent or $100 of the cost. This part of the order was both embraced and backlashed by some states.

Some states cannot cover 25 percent of the unemployment claim due to economic fallout brought by the global pandemic. But on Sunday, Trump said it was possible for the federal government to cover all the cost of unemployment benefits without requiring states to share their 25 percent.

He said governors, whose states are financially challenged by COVID-19 pandemic, can request the federal government to cover all the cost, according to a published report of CNN News.

Before the President returned to the White House from his resort in New Jersey, he said, "We have a system where we can do 100 percent, or we can do 75 percent, they pay 25, and it will depend on the state. And they will make an application. We will look at it, and we'll make a decision."

He noted that the federal government covering all the costs is possible in some instances like the National Guard, adding that the federal government sometimes pays all depending on the tragedy, or the disaster.

Weighing on how the states can afford to pay the extra cost, some experts of a national news outlet said if states do not have funds or do not want to agree, then the unemployed people in those states will not receive anything.